Monday, July 27, 2015

My apologies for not posting sooner. I've been out of town visiting family in California and I had a great time spending a week on the central coast in Arroyo Grande with my sister and her family. Vacation is always a blast, but the first day back to work after a week off is always painful. It's also painful when one of your favorite players is traded. I knew it was coming but I also know that in the grand scheme of things it's better for the Reds to get something for him before he departs for greener pastures when free agency hits. Enough with the sorrow - onward to my latest pickup. In my previous post I mentioned buying some pins from 1993. I decided to follow that up by purchasing the 1994 and 1995 Coca-Cola pin sets as well. The 1994 set consists of 5 pins that detail the Reds World Championship years (1919, 1940, 1975, 1976, 1990) and the 1995 set, also consisting of 5 pins, showcases the evolving logo of the Reds from 1869 to 1995 (1869, 1907, 1911, 1939, 1995). So far I have a total of 19 different pins. I would still like to find pins commemorating the 1938, 1953 and 1970 All-Star games held in Cincinnati and I have my sights set on a pin commemorating the first interleague game the Reds played (against the Chicago White Sox back in June of 1997). Hopefully in the near future I can have the pins mounted in a display and post a pic.

Friday, July 17, 2015

I've never been a pin collector. I never understood the appeal of sporting a hat with a bunch of pins covering it or, worse yet, wearing pins on my shirt. However, a few weeks back I came across a collector that collected pins and had them displayed nicely in a shadowbox on a wall. The pins were arranged nicely in rows and were not just clustered together in some hodge podge fashion. So that got me thinking about picking up some pins for my collection. I wouldn't go crazy in trying to obtain as many pins as possible, but rather keep it simple and only collect commemorative pins about the Reds and their ballparks. With the All-Star game this past week in Cincinnati, I knew I had to gave one of those pins, as well as a pin from the 1988 All-Star game at Riverfront. While looking on eBay for other pins to purchase I came across a set of pins given out at Riverfront in 1993. The set consists of seven pins detailing MLB 1st that the Reds were a part of (1st team in baseball, 1st night game, 1st televised game, 1st ladies night, 1st team to fly, 1st National League team to go wire to wire). The 7th pin in the series is a 125 year anniversary of the founding of the ball club. There are a few more pins that I'm on the hunt for including any World Series pins (1919, 1940, 1975, 1976 and 1990) as well as the first interleague game (watching one on eBay right now that I'll probably purchase in a few weeks). I'm even toying around with the idea of getting press pins from the All-Star games and World Series. Unfortunately those sell for $100+ and I can buy a lot of vintage cards for the price of one of those pins. Anyway, I think they'll look great when I get them displayed in the man cave.

Wednesday, July 8, 2015

I love history. I think it's fascinating to be able to look back in time and see what took place 10, 20, 50 years ago. It gives us a window into our past when times seemed so much simpler compared to the hustle and bustle of today. It reminds us of where we've been even though most of us are in a hurry to get through today.

I'm always thinking of ways that I can expand my collection without taking up too much room in house and I've recently decided that one aspect of our sport fits perfectly into my love of baseball and history, pocket schedules. This past weekend I was in Cincinnati for a Reds/Brewers game and my family and I decided to pay a visit to Frisch's. While we were at the checkout I noticed a nice box of Reds pocket schedules and decided to grab one when I saw Big Boy on the front. Later, as I was thumbing through the schedule it occurred to me that these little booklets contain a wealth of historical information. Each game of the season is detailed nicely with home and away games depicted accordingly. In addition to the advertisements that are included within, some of these pocket schedules list stadium giveaways, appreciation nights, stadium seating, and seating prices. I know that if I wanted to I could probably find this information online, but that just not me. I prefer the feel of paper over digitized copies.

So I've now started collecting Cincinnati Reds pocket schedules. I know that these won't break the bank when it comes to purchasing these and, as I stated before, I love the history these tiny booklets contain. I'm not going to try and collect the various schedules that come out each year. I don't need four different 2015 pocket schedules that have the same information but different advertisements. That just seems like overkill to me. I also won't have to worry about storage since these fit nicely in a standard 9 pocket card page. I plan on purchasing an ultra pro 90 card album to hold this new collection. Now if I can only start wrapping up some of my other projects before I start something new.